Jury ends ninth day in deliberating Philadelphia abortion doctor case

By DAVE WARNERReuters

PHILADELPHIA - A Philadelphia jury ended a ninth day of deliberations on Friday without reaching a verdict in the murder trial of a doctor accused of killing babies and a patient during late-term abortions at a clinic that served low-income women.

Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 72, who ran the now-closed Women's Medical Society Clinic, could face the death penalty if convicted by the jury in Common Pleas Court in Philadelphia.

The seven-woman, five-man jury heard five weeks of testimony before starting deliberations on April 30.

The jury retired for the day on Friday at about 1:30 p.m. and was scheduled to resume at 8:30 a.m. on Monday.

Gosnell is charged with four counts of first-degree murder for delivering live babies during late-term abortions and then deliberately severing their spinal cords, prosecutors said.

It is legal in Pennsylvania to abort a fetus up to 24 weeks into a pregnancy.

Gosnell also faces charges that he performed 24 abortions beyond 24 weeks in term.

Gosnell's defense contends there is no evidence the babies were alive after they were aborted.